I read a book about food (quite a long time ago now, actually, I’m so behind with everything, it’s embarrassing). The book was written by Niklas Ekstedt, a chef, and Henrik Ennart, a journalist, and it is called “Den blå maten – Recept för ett långt och lyckligt liv” (“The blue food – Recipes for a long and happy life”). It is about the blue zones, places in the world where the chances of getting older than a hundred are statistically the highest. An island in Japan, a group of mountain communities on Sicily, the tip of a headland in Costa Rica, and a couple more. What all of these places have in common is that they are remote, where people’s lifestyles have stayed the same even through modernization – except for access to modern medicine. People work with their bodies and they have strong beliefs in a religion or their community, close relationships with family and neighbors. And they care about food. A lot of it they even produce themselves. Little meat, a lot of vegetables, good fats. Each chapter centers on one of the blue zones and ends with a handful of recipes based on their traditional food.
It is an interesting read, although the academic in me found it a bit shallow. But it’s not fair to ask for too much. It’s a cookbook, after all. However, it made me think: What’s this obsession with getting old? The book is written like it’s a good in itself, turning a hundred. And maybe it is, if the life has been good. If you’ve had those close relationships with family and neighbors, if you’ve cared deeply, and eaten a lot of good food. But there is also something so contradictory in this. The self-centeredness. Having the power and freedom to choose to live in a way to turn a hundred, and using it do just that. When the world is full of people who don’t have that choice. Shouldn’t old age be a reward after a life spent making the world a better place, and not a goal in itself? Maybe I have a savior’s complex, but there’s just something with this healthy lifestyle and superfood obsession of current western middle-class culture that makes me uncomfortable.
However, I do love food. Inspired by the book, I created my own blue recipe. Rhubarbs from the back yard (I’ve really been obsessed with rhubarb the past year) and strawberries bought at the market turned into a tart sauce, thick oat yogurt with some vanilla powder and fairtrade walnuts. Organic, vegan, mostly locally produced, rich in micro-nutrients. Very similar to something my grandmother used to make for me when I was a kid.
Katja Malmborg 